Air Malta is leasing an extra plane to cope with the post-COVID demand for travel, it said on Friday.

The national airline will lease the aircraft and crew from GetJet Airlines, a chartering company based in Lithuania. 

Air Malta's chief commercial officer Roy Kinnear said the extra aircraft will allow it to facilitate extra services on markets including Madrid, Prague, Lyon and charter services to Warsaw.

"It’s encouraging to see air travel rebound strongly and demand from customers who have longed to travel again, rising sharply," he said.

"During April and May we carried over 267,000 guests across our 17 routes, achieving unprecedented seat load factors for both months.

Executive chairman David G. Curmi added that the increases are good news to the local travel and tourism industries which have passed through challenging times over the past years.

The record levels of seat load factor being experienced by Air Malta, he said, were expected to continue in the coming months and the network occupancy level in June was higher than 90%.

With this additional aircraft, Air Malta will this summer be operating with eight Airbus aircraft, all based in Malta.